The perfect pitching motion: Analysis from a doctor, a coach and a player

The ideal pitching motion is an intimidating concept that can be approached from many different angles. With so much going on in the split second it takes a pitcher to deliver the ball, books could be written on the subject that would still omit important information.

Oh yeah, and put the ball in an always-moving strike zone so that it doesn't get hit.

Developing perfect pitching mechanics can seem as difficult a task as any in sports, yet there are people devoted to its pursuit.

Three types of people in particular approach the topic of pitching mechanics from different angles with different motives - the doctor, the coach and the pitcher.

THE DOCTOR

Dr. Brian Casazza was a pitcher before he was a doctor.

While pursuing an undergraduate degree at Princeton in the 1980s, Casazza was a three-time letterman (1985-87) for the Tigers. His pitching career ended there, however, and he went on to earn a medical degree from Northwestern in 1991.

Casazza spent 12 years practicing spinal medicine in Charlottesville, Va., before coming to Athens. For the past two years, he has led the clinical team at the Athens Regional Spine Institute.

"I've always maintained an interest in sports," Casazza said.

That much is clear when one walks into Casazza's office in the Medical Services building. The magazine rack is loaded with copies of Sports Illustrated and the walls are covered in pictures of various athletes.

His job is helping people deal with spinal injuries, but his hobby is studying how the spine connects with the rest of the body to create an ideal pitching motion.

His view of a pitcher's mechanics is based strongly in science.

"There are a ton of different opinions out there," Casazza said. "There might be some that disagree with mine. But to them I just say, 'Show me the science.' "

Since completing his residency at Northwestern in 1996, Casazza has continuously studied and taught the science behind proper pitching mechanics. In one study, Casazza and his team experimented with stabilizing a pitcher's spine with a neck brace, using nine Division I-A pitchers in a game atmosphere.

He found that a pitcher who could not engage his spine and torso lost an average of 3.3 mph on his pitch and threw a concerning 43 percent fewer strikes.

Afterward, he presented the study to a vast array of people in baseball, including once at the Major League Baseball's owners meeting.

Much of Casazza's results deal with the "kinetic chain" between body parts in a pitcher's motion. Ideally, a pitcher's delivery will transfer energy from the foot pushing off the ground up the leg, through the torso, down the arm and into the exiting ball.

The windup builds a pitcher's potential energy and the delivery turns it into kinetic energy, which can in turn transform a baseball into a 90-mph rocket.

Despite what may seem like common sense, the strength of the shoulder and arm have very little to do with the velocity of the pitch. Cassaza refers to the shoulder as a "passenger along for the ride" in the chain that makes up a pitch.

A break in that chain means an aberration in a pitcher's motion, which could result in a bad pitch or, even worse, an injury.

"If one part of the chain doesn't work, then another part will try to make up for it," he said. "If you open your hips up too early, your shoulder and arm will try to compensate. That puts a lot of pressure on the shoulder joint, which it is not built for."

That added strain will wear down pitchers faster and could lead to long-term issues that can only be resolved by surgery. One of the most famous procedures for pitchers is known as "Tommy John surgery," where a ligament in the elbow is replaced with a tendon from elsewhere.

The surgery is named after Tommy John, who first underwent the procedure in 1974 after tearing the ulnar collateral ligament in his throwing elbow while pitching for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Cassaza believes there are several key points that every pitcher must reach - regardless of size, strength or style - to keep the chain intact and prevent those injuries.

First, a pitcher's stride foot (the one not based on the rubber) must land with at a slightly closed angle to prevent his hips and shoulder from opening too early.

Next, when that lead foot does land, his shoulders must be level, almost parallel to the ground. As the pitcher opens up to the plate, there needs to be some bend in his trunk away from his throwing hand - what is known to spinal experts like Cassaza as "lateral flexion."

Cassaza is demonstrative when talking about the science behind pitching. He'll stand up and slowly go through the key positions as he explains the importance of each.

On March 6, Cassaza gave a presentation titled, "The Science of Pitching: What Every Baseball Pitcher and Coach Needs To Know" for a group of coaches, players and parents at North Oconee High School.

Many of the techniques Cassaza presented were old news to Titans coach Dwayne Sapp, but the science behind them was new.

"It was beneficial to get the science behind it, the kinesiology," Sapp said. "It was reassuring to what I was doing and our strength guy is doing to build a baseball player."

But don't expect Casazza to give up his spot at Athens Regional for a spot in a bullpen somewhere. Baseball is still just a hobby to him.

"I know how to put it in scientific terms," Casazza said. "How you teach it, I have no idea."

THE COACH

Tom Gooch was a catcher before he was a coach.

After squatting behind the plate during his college years, Gooch has spent the last 10 years teaching those who stand directly in front of it.

In both cases, he was trying to help pitchers get batters out.

"It was a natural transition when I came to high school ball," said Gooch, Oconee County's pitching coach.

Before someone takes the mound for the Warriors, Gooch gives each of his pitchers a 37-page manual that is broken down into four categories - the mental part of pitching, the mechanics of pitching, fielding and conditioning.

The section on mechanics is 12 pages long and goes through a series of highly specific details, including the different grips for each pitch, how to stand on the mound, hiding the baseball in the glove and the follow-through.

The reason for the coach's emphasis on proper mechanics is obvious.

"Two things are going to happen if you have bad mechanics," Gooch said. "You aren't going to be able to throw the ball where you want to and you are going to hurt yourself."

Like Gooch, Jefferson head coach Tommy Knight has coached some of the top pitchers to come through the area in recent years. By the time a player reaches the varsity level, however, the major growth into their throwing motion should be over.

"The big thing is getting them started as early as possible," Knight said. "In (recreational) leagues and middle school, that is when the basic fundamental stuff is done. Once they get to high school, it is just about fine tuning everything."

And there is always something to fine tune.

Knight said he is constantly confounded by how one of his pitchers can have solid mechanics one day and then lose them the next. Even some of his best pitchers have reoccurring issues.

Chris Beck, the Banner-Herald's player of the year in 2009, would bring his arms up too early. Senior Jake Fields occasionally drops his elbow down. Senior Jamie Sexton "tries to throw the ball too stinking hard."

Making matters more difficult for a coach is how no two pitchers have the same delivery. Every person on the mound presents a new challenge and could require a different approach.

"Some of our kids have to see it, so we film them," Gooch said. "Some kids need a lot of drills and reps. There is no magic answer to that. We have to take it on a case-by-case basis."

Georgia pitching coach Brady Wiederhold has never believed it possible or even beneficial to create the same motion in every pitcher. Like Gooch, he approaches each pitcher differently.

But Wiederhold does believe there are several spots in a pitching motion that are constants for everyone. His main area of focus is direction.

"For as long as the game has been played, the mound has been in front of the plate," Wiederhold said. "That is the direction the body must go. The pitcher's energy, everything, has to be moving towards home plate."

In other words, falling toward one dugout or the other to conclude a follow-through could result in wayward pitches.

Gooch preaches balance. He said the two most important moments when a pitcher must be in balance is at the apex of his knee lift and when his front foot hits in the stride. A pitcher who isn't balanced at those two points will be off kilter throughout the entire motion.

"The biggest thing is you have to get to a balanced point," said Gooch, who also stresses the importance of a consistent release point and finishing the follow-through.

Gooch, Knight and Wiederhold all compared a pitcher's motion to the same thing - a golf swing. With so many moving parts, one small mistake in the beginning of the motion could produce major damage in the end.

The key to making that motion easily repeatable, they said, is constantly reminding the body how to do it, step by step.

"Repeat and repeat and repeat and repeat," Knight said. "The first few throws are the most important. That is when they are thinking about it. If they don't do it when they first start, they'll play catch-up the whole time."

Gooch has a series of six drills he puts his pitchers through every day to keep their mechanics sound. The drills are designed to break down the pitching motion and focus on specific parts.

Prior to this season, the Oconee County coach used just three drills a few times a week, but he changed that approach after talking to other coaches.

"I know an awful lot about pitching," Gooch said. "But if there is something I didn't know, I'm going to steal it and I'm going to use it."

Practice is when proper mechanics are taught and built. The game is where it is put on display.

By the time his pitcher takes the mound in a game, the coach hopes that the motion and mechanics are automatic. The last thing he needs is for his player to be thinking through every single move he makes.

With so much else on his mind - the count, the score, runners on base, the scouting report - a pitcher doesn't need more on his mind.

"Everything is broken down so much that I think we get caught up in that," Wiederhold said. "We try to make things too difficult. Eventually a guy forgets, 'I have to throw the baseball.' They are thinking about every little move that they become robotic. That is when you get into trouble."

THE PITCHER

Bradley West has always been a pitcher.

Since he was 9, the Clarke Central left-hander has spent the majority of his time on a baseball field on the mound. Now a senior, he has become one of the Gladiators' top pitchers, but it was in those earlier years, however, that West built the base of his mechanics.

"My brother helped me out when I was younger," West said. "As I got older, I went to a few pitching coaches in Atlanta to get final touches. Now I've been doing the same since I was 13 or 14."

West's most common problem with his delivery is one he shares with many players - falling off to one side of the mound. Instead of keeping his body weight and momentum moving forward, he'll drop off the side when his mechanics aren't sound.

At 5-foot-11 with a slim frame, West isn't going to fool anyone into thinking he is a power pitcher. Because he can't rely on high velocity to get him out of tough spots, producing an ideal motion with each pitch is even more important.

"I don't throw the hardest," West said. "I have to be able to throw a lot of strikes. Mechanics really helps with that."

From a mechanical standpoint, a pitcher is very much like a car. While everything may still be running, there is still the need for constant maintenance and trips to the shop.

While that means oil changes and tire rotations for cars, it means bullpen sessions and repeated drills for the pitcher.

But sometimes the driver can fix the car himself.

North Oconee senior Taylor Hicks, a Georgia signee, occasionally notices the same problem as West with his delivery. If he notices it happening during a game, it is usually a quick fix.

"Most of the time I can fix them within two or three pitches," Hicks said. "It takes a long time. You have to be pitching for a long time to notice a flaw and to be able to fix it."

But the Titans' ace has had problems that required more work than simply an extra dose of focus.

Last season, Hicks said that the tilt of his shoulders was off and that was an adjustment that required more than two or three pitches. He had to spend hours repeating the motion with his shoulders level to instill the proper motion back into his mechanics.

For starting pitchers, the later innings are when mechanics start to break down. Because of fatigue, one part of the motion gets sloppy, forcing other parts to speed up or work harder.

Georgia right-hander Jeff Walters admitted that he tends to fall toward the dugout in the later innings. He added that he sometimes opens his shoulders too early, and that causes his pitch location to be erratic.

Like most pitchers, Walters sometimes requires a coach to point out the problem. But instead of focusing on the location of his shoulders, he focuses on the part of his body pushing him towards the plate.

"They will scream out to us what we are doing wrong," Walters said. "It is always late in the game when it happens. For me, it all starts with the legs. Everything comes from the legs."

This season, Bulldogs reliever Cecil Tanner has had to make a number of adjustments to his mechanics. Most recently, he was having a problem with his arm "dragging" behind his body during the delivery.

But were it not for his coaches' diligent work, he never would have adjusted. It wasn't until Wiederhold noticed it on film that he raised the subject.

"They see it on video and ask us if we are feeling the same thing they are seeing," Tanner said. "I didn't even notice my arm dragging. I had no clue. When we got down and started doing it correctly, it started feeling a lot better."

In a way, the doctor, the coach and the pitcher all rely on each other. The player relies on the coach to point out the mistakes. The coach relies on the player to listen.

The coach relies on the doctor to help explain what needs to be corrected and why. The doctor relies on the coach to communicate the information to the player in an understandable fashion.

When he spoke at North Oconee in March, Cassaza used Hicks as an example of the proper pitching motion. It was likely the first time for Hicks that someone put his motion into scientific terms.

Like his coach, Hicks knew the basics of his pitching motion. But it was beneficial to hear about it from another angle.

"I knew how to do it, but I didn't know why I had to," Hicks said. "It was kind of cool. It made me realize there are a lot of pitchers that really have a lot of flaws that no one pays attention to because they don't know they science behind it."

Going through the motions

The knee lift

A pitcher lifting his knee is usually the beginning of the wind up and where much of the velocity of the pitch is built. This is where the body begins to store potential energy, which it will soon turn into kinetic energy and deliver towards the plate.

The most important thing about this part of the delivery is balance. An off-balance knee lift will make the rest of the motion uneven, which will result in erratic pitches.

Shoulders level and closed

Until the lead foot lands on the stride, a pitchers’ shoulders need to remain level and closed, or facing away from home plate. Allowing a shoulder to drop could severely affect the height at which the ball is

delivered.

Also, opening up the shoulders towards the batter prior to the lead foot landing will cost the pitcher velocity and may force his arm to make up the difference, adding strain to the rotator cuff.

Landing at a closed angle

To aid in keeping the pitcher's hips and shoulders closed until the stride is complete, a pitcher's lead foot should land slightly closed, or not pointing straight at the batter.

The stride

Every player has a particular stride length dependent on their height and style of pitching. Landing with too long of a stride could strain the body. Landing too short could cost velocity.

Bend at the hip

After the lead foot lands and the shoulders and hips start to square towards the batter, the pitcher should bend at the hip away from his throwing arm.

This is known as lateral flexion and it helps deliver the ball and slow the arm down on the follow through.

Moving forward

One of the most common mistakes a

pitcher makes is ending his delivery by falling towards one dugout or the other, depending on what hand he throws with. Keeping the body moving forward will keep the pitcher's energy towards the plate, adding velocity and accuracy.